Comments for: Apple growers struggling with tough season

LINCOLNVILLE, Maine — Total crop failure. It’s the first season in more than 30 years that apple grower Bob Sewall of Sewall Organic Orchard in Lincolnville has seen such a dire scenario, which he attributes to abnormally warm March days followed by a cold snap that… Read More

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Anonymous

Now calm down, so ya gotta eat more blueberry pie this year, and less apple pie, the wild blackberry picking was not as good it seems to me, the wife and I got around 24 quarts, but it took a lot of work.

cleanearth

My usually productive organic apple trees had very few apples on them this year, and those few were misshapen. There’s no doubt we’re facing trouble from warming winters and crazy hot spells during winter/late spring.

Plus, of course, there’s the death of honey bees caused by use of pesticides sprayed by “commercial” growers….fewer honeybees means fewer flowers get pollinated means fewer fruits, less food for us and wildlife.

We need our honeybees more than we need growers to be using pesticides.

Poison-using growers contaminate our drinking waters, too. We all know they could switch to organic clean methods which actually help our environment, rather than poisoning birds, bees, all small creatures, everyone’s children, us, and Maine’s wildlife and fisheries.

Anonymous

Spray arsenic.

Scott

Arsenic is poison, too.

Anonymous

I know.

Anonymous

This was predicted …

… by the theory of man made Global Warming.

Anonymous

My neighbor is trying to be organic with his trees but his fruits are a mess with blight and bugs.
He sprays it with something thats suppose to be safe but it doesn’t look like it’s working to me.
I don’t usually use anything but my 2 trees are young and my 2 crabs nothing much seems to bother them. Would you be willing to point me in a direction of information. I need my applesauce.

cleanearth

Hi Scintillate – Best thing is to go to the Common Ground Fair that the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association holds every year in Unity. It’s September 21-22-23 this year. I’s really fun with Maine crafts, farming demonstrations including sheep dog trials (on Saturday), and lots of farmers selling organic produce. See http://www.mofga.org

There will be organic apple growers there selling their beautiful apples. I don’t grow apples professionally, but I do use a sticky cream (non-toxic) around the trees about 2′ up to catch caterpillars, use red stick balls hanging in the trees to catch codling moths, and my sheep (when I had them) used to eat all the fallen down apples so the pests didn’t get to winter over.

Anonymous

Hello, I had forgotten all about the Unity Fair, thak you for reminding me
I’ll certainly go and maybe get a better handle on tree care the heathy way
My great grand father had over 525 fruit trees , he grew apples I never heard of,1894-1940 only 1 or 2 are still living. He was called a supplier for the “Fancy Grocer”
He passed away before I came along but I sure wish I could turn the clock
back for some lessons.
Thank you so much!

Anonymous

Al Gore’s fault!

Lord Whiteman

It could be. Rash Limbaugh said Obama used his magic powers to make a hurricane ruin Romney’s selection ceremony .

Anonymous

Thought that was God’s retribution.

cleanearth

Oh, yeah, great idea. Arsenic is a poisonous heavy metal which stays in the soil and gets taken up by the trees so the apples would contain Arsenic. Great for kids’ lunch, right?

In any case, I’m an organic grower so will not even consider using pesticides, even if Arsenic would have done any good, which it would not have. There’s always a clean way.

We cannot control the climate and its weather. The hot spell in March forced blooms which got killed when a frost hit a bit later. Nothing to be done for that except hope it doesn’t happen again next year.

Lord Whiteman

The Republicans have been lying to us about global warming and now they demand we give them even more authority over our children’s future.

Anonymous

Are you serious? I have to believe that your comments are solely for comic value, or to get a rise out of people. Nobody can believe half the stuff you post. But it is comical. Thanks for all the laughs over coffee.

Lord Whiteman

Maybe you don’t go outside much but Global warming is a fact and no amount of ridicule from Koch Bros. zombies will fix the problem.

Anonymous

I like how you got “Koch Bros” in there. I wasn’t sure about your point but once I saw that part, you sold me.

Anonymous

Yeah, don’t forget George Bush, too.

Anonymous

Truly, apples are really not fit to eat anymore, they do not taste good. I remember when we had real apples, russets for the cellar to eat after january, we had Thomas sweet, we had red asterkins, we had wolf river, baking apples, we had ben davis winter apples, this crap today thay call apples, yuck.

Anonymous

It wouldn’t be time wasted to set about locating and growing certain old varieties. (You can’t plant a seed from an apple and get that apple variety – much to learn). They don’t taste the same as commercially-grown apples, that’s for certain. Many are an acquired taste because we are unused to “taste.” Tart, and, sweet tend to rule, as are fruits that are not perfectly-shaped.

There is a compendium of Maine apples grown. Apples of Maine. There is a two volume set of The Apples of New York, many varieties that flourished in Maine as well. There were, as with many things, an astounding number of varieties, (and their history is fascinating).

Other fine reading: APPLES, APPLES, APPLES by Elizabeth Helfman. ALL ABOUT APPLES by Alice A. Martin.

Also, there is a website that offers fruit sharing http://www.fruitshare.net/ I found this through the apple-based website Orange Pippin.

Anonymous

Ever tried Honeycrisps? Other locally grown apples? The former are sweet yet crisp, good for eating out of hand or in baking, and keep well. Unfortunately, I fear they are the most affected. Plenty of “real apples” out there.

Not only do we not have our usual crop of Wolf Rivers for apple dumplings this fall, this year there were next to no peaches, pears or plums. Living on the coast, I blamed it on the usual fog and rain at blossom time, but what do I know?

Over the eons we have had warm and cold snaps lasting hundreds of years in between ice ages. For example,in 1816 there was “1800 and froze to death” and there was a relatively milder climate during the Medieval Warm Period from around 800 to 1200 which facilitated the Scandinavian settlement of Greenland. So one hot or cold spring doesn’t mean a returning ice age or global warming.

Most of us are not sure of what global warming is, how to know it when we see it, or what
scientists or laypeople mean when they use the term.

Perhaps the definitive work on global warming is Deep Future by Curt Stager. If you’d like to know more about climate change than most of your neighbors, it’s a good read and easier than trying to outguess apple trees.

The humble Farmer

Anonymous

Ugh

Scientists have measured changes in the abundance of radioactive and stable isotopes of carbon dioxide that could only have originated from the burning of fossil fuels – and they have also identified human activity as the primary factors influencing concentrations of methane and nitrous oxide in atmosphere.

Scientists have measured increases in these anthropogenic greenhouse gases over decades.

Scientists have measured the increase in absorbance of upwelling infrared radiation caused by the increases in anthropogenic greenhouse gases.

Scientists have measured the increase in the amount of thermal energy trapped in the Earth’s climate system by these greenhouse gases.

Scientists have measured rising temperatures in air, water and rock – and the melting of ice – caused by the increase in greenhouse gases since the Industrial Revolution.

People that “don’t know what global warming is” have been the target of a massive disinformation campaign by the fossil fuel industry and their republican allies.

“Everyone else knows that global warming is real.” The hubris of this
statement speaks for itself. Delving further into your post reveals mere talking
points & it sounds good to say “decades” (Satellite measurements go back to
1980. Other limited forms of data collection for CO2 may go back to ’58, etc.
The “scientific evidence” is not in.) Nevermind the millions of years of
climatological change some folks want to focus on a very small window to enact
the knee jerk feelgood call that the apocalypse is coming. Pangaea? The
Mesozoic through the Cenozoic periods? Exactly what part did man play in the
widely varying temperatures & climate over the history of the Earth?
Farming is a very tough business & a one year fluctuation does not make
a trend.

Anonymous

They don’t call Deniers deniers for nothing.

You cite the science and ignore it – all the evidence points to human activity warming the planet.

You have you atheist and agnostics and true believers . My point is some things we do not have enough information about to prove cause and affect. We can make good guesses but that is the best we can do.

Anonymous

We have the evidence – we’ve had it for years and in many cases decades.

Pleading ignorance is doesn’t cut it anymore.

Yessah

Henderson bobby

Do you believe the sun always burns at a constant? Yes Global warming by fossil fuels is the most popular theory Science has but not the only possible one .

Uh, pseudoscience is not science. I didn’t “cite the science” merely pointed
out your illogical use of certain terms as an example. You’re compounding that
again by stating “all the evidence.” Also, why use a plural personal pronoun to
refer to yourself (“WE” ignore you…,) unless you are indeed a disciple of the
CRU which explains why you hold the views that you do. You do know that their
models were debunked & disproved, right?

Anonymous

For everyone, especially the denialists, check out the article in the September Scientific American on the most probable predictions on what will happen with increasing (or even constant0 CO2 emissions. The modeling is based on comparisons with previous warming (Cretaceous) and stresses the rapidity of increase in temperatures around the globe, especially in the Arctic. Note that migrations of many species, especially plants and trees, toward the poles can’t keep up with the climate and temperature shifts. Check how we can easily match Cretaceous CO2 levels where the the poles were temperate and even subtropical. Read and get back to us.

Thanks for confirming what I already said w/regards to the different eras,
periods, epochs, etc. From “lunarlumber”: “So WE ignore you.”

From “gofer”: “Read & get back to US.” Members of the CRU unite
behind the disinformation campaign!

Henderson bobby

Lets see prove Oil or Natural Gas is even a fossil fuel. I am not saying it is not . odds are the methane gas we find on Saturns moon Titan is not from fossils of dinosaurs but who know maybe thier was life on Titan? The sun does not burn at a constant study the sunspot cycle. Yes global warming could be from fossil fuels but then again it the billions of years earth has been here it could be warming for 1000s of years in the middle of the biggest cooling off period. It is not a bar graph or a bell curve it is more like a butterfly chart. But what dose this uneducated person with an IQ in the low 70s know? What really gets me is nrmal people with average smarts ( much smarter than I) can not see a much bigger picture and realize a lot of thing we do not know. Wow it has been warmer that last 20 years global warming is comming it is the end of the world . Seems like those people can not think nearly as well as I can.

Anonymous

As I posted elsewhere, reads the Scientific American article.
Are you trying to be insulting? Doubting munebaghts (and others) creds?

Henderson bobby

Gopher 40 I respect your post . You seem to know a lot about education issues. You are more of a concrete thinker an I am more of an abstract one . Yes Scientific American could be right . We should do more to conserve and not pollute . When I was in school I was taught the world was going to run out of oil by the year 2000 . I has not happened yet. Study history and look back 200 years and see how little we knew than compare to know . Look ahead 200 years and people will look back at us and say how little they knew about science. A lot of science is just educated guesses . I spent a long time trying to comprehend infinity lol my disappointment when science told me the universe is only like 14 billion years old .

Anonymous

Oh please – take a middle school Earth Science class.

Methane is produced by methanogenic archaea during the anaerobic decomposition of organic matter – it’s happening in your colon right now. It’s been happening on Earth for billions of years. Ancient methane trapped in rock is a fossil fuel.

Coal contains fossil plants – its fossil fuel.

Oil, kerogen and bitumen are produced from the decomposition and diagenesis of marine organic matter (microscopic photosynthetic eukaryotes – not dead dinosaurs) as well. The rocks where oil and gas are formed and trapped have been dated – and geologists often use fossil foraminifera to date and identify these formations. Oil a fossil fuel.

Learn something – go to the websites of the the journals Nature and Science and do a search for any issue related to global warming.

The US has the lowest STEM achievement scores of any industrial country in the world.

I see evidence of this every day.

I call it The Republican Base.

Yessah

Henderson bobby

How dose methane get on other planets and moons? Please tell me are thier Dinosaurs on Saturns moons? I have no idea but you seem to know more than I do. In elementary school I was borderline retarded . I think you will find horses produced more methane in New York city than man is making today . I have some issues with education . I did not say Oil was not a fossil fuel if you read my post. Having an extra class ham radio license I studied the Sunspot cycle . I seem to remember a question my son had in math about how many time the earth rotates in a year . I explain to him it is about 3661/4 I went on to explain it on looks like 365 because we orbit the sun . Well my sons answer was wrong . Sorry a good teacher would have been smart enough to just know that without looking it up. the correct answer was 365 he wanted that is in middle school they do not want kids to really think or question things. If the earth was an egg the deepest hole we ever made would not have made it through the shell. I think global warming could be from fossil fuels but it might not be . Look at all the miss information that was taught to kids 30 years ago in school . Do you think that has changed?

Henderson bobby

Show me the average daily temperature for the last oh lets say4 billion years and show me that the earth has never warmed up as fast as it has now? Kinda hard to “PROVE” cause and affect now isn’t it unless man burnt fossil fuels several times before we even new man existed .

I looked up plumbs define before posting my commentary and still got it wrong.

If you can bob for apples why not plumbs?

In every article I write I have to look up the spelling of three or more words. Lately spell check has helped but for years I had to look up some of my favorite words every week.

If you know me, you are certainly aware that I also have a mild case of prosophenosia. I always ask you if we have met before and for years I’ve told new friends that I won’t recognize them if I see them the next day.

Although I’ve known for years that I couldn’t recognize people I’d had supper with the night before, I didn’t know until recently that there’s a name for it and that 2% or so of the population are afflicted. I have communicated with a professor at Harvard who has done a study on it. You might have seen the recently aired 60 Minutes piece on prosophenosia.

Some 60-year-old women are married to older men who see a strange woman in bed every morning, and they are glad.

A gallon of cider is $6 at Hannafords. Can’t afford that. Sigh. I find it interesting that so many people who are affected by global warming are all talking about it but the politicians won’t. Even our military cites global warming as a major problem in the near future and is preparing for it. Island nations are going under. The Mid-Atlantic states will be very affected by rising sea levels, even more so than Florida – which only has a few decades to survive being right at or below sea level – because of the way the ocean ‘pushes’ with it’s tides.

The apple industry is suffering now. What will happen to the maple syrup industry? Yikes! And all the new bugs that are now inhabiting the upper levels of America….all that is new.

But I like the way Romney laughs it off. Ha ha.

Anonymous

Since tree populations don’t migrate fast enough for the warming we’re seeing, the maple syrup industry has a bleak future, at least at these latitudes.

Anonymous

Just get some free Obama money. Duh.

Anonymous

Yeah – Republicans never release relief money for agricultural and other natural disasters.

Not

I would really really like to see Rmoney and Lyan Ryan go around the Corn Belt telling farmers they would never get any “free Rmoney money” from them after droughts and floods.